Thierry Neuville has mounted an initial fightback against the Toyota pair that lead Rally Spain, winning the Savallà test that kicked off Saturday’s action.
A determined Neuville declared that “we’re going to push” after winning the stage, in which he reduced the gap to second-placed Kalle Rovanperä to 5.4s and the gap to rally leader Sébastien Ogier to 11.4s.
“The battle is still on, that’s for sure,” said a combative Neuville.
That said, Neuville wasn’t too comfortable either, concerned the car still wasn’t to his liking: “I feel like I’m pushing but I don’t feel comfortable. Last year I felt much more sure about everything and here it’s a bit on and off. Difficult to feel the grip and I had a bit of understeer in there, so we’re going to work on that.”
Ogier was only 0.9s off Neuville’s pace in the fastest Toyota and indicated he wasn’t giving it everything just yet.
“[I’m] not yet absolutely maximum to be honest,” Ogier declared. “In the morning you need to get a bit the feeling and manage the risk level. It’s not a bad start.”
Intermittent hybrid boost problems had pegged Ott Tänak back on Saturday, leaving him 20s off the lead and 7.5s off team-mate Neuville.
There were no car issues on the first pass of Savallà but he is effectively consigned to running fourth for now and hoping he can slowly erode Neuville’s advantage in third over the day.
That plan didn’t start well, though, losing 2.1s on Saturday’s first test: “It was an OK run, everything’s working, so not too bad. Let’s try. [These are] traditional roads, so not possible to take 20s back for sure.”
Dani Sordo is defending a top-five spot from Elfyn Evans and Craig Breen behind but began the day losing time to both of them.
Hyundai’s third driver lost 2.2s to Evans – and it was a recurring theme from past editions of the rally that held Sordo back.
“Every year I lost in the middle part,” Sordo said. “I take a little bit careful on the tires because it’s demanding on the tires.
“I expected better.”
An opportunity to push for sixth had fallen into Breen’s lap late on Friday when Evans picked up a front-left puncture on stage seven.
Based on their relative pace during the rally on Friday, it seemed likely Evans would simply pull away and fight Sordo for fifth on Saturday morning. Instead, Evans slipped further back into the clutches of Evans on Savallà, separated by only 1.8s.
“We need to improve, that’s the bottom line,” said Evans matter-of-factly. “Still work to do.”
It was perhaps a surprise for Breen, who’d already warned before Friday night service that he’d be up against it on roads he didn’t have any knowledge of but many of his rivals did.
“I’ve not done the stage before, got through it, changed a couple of notes, but car is really good today.”
Takamoto Katsuta had dropped back to eighth with a puncture late on Friday but is already recovering well, pulling further clear of the M-Sport gaggle that’s squabbling over ninth place.
That said, the Toyota Next Generation driver didn’t appear confident that Breen, almost half a minute up the road, was catchable: “I’m fifth on the road but some cuts already start to be dirty,” he pointed out.
Gus Greensmith is putting pressure on team-mate Adrien Fourmaux to be the second-best Ford Puma pilot, gaining 1.4s and reducing the gap to 6.1s.
When the roads were clean Fourmaux was pulling away from Greensmith on the splits – but as soon as corner cuts came into a play and dirt had been pulled into the road, he began to drop time again.
“I was a bit careful in the middle of the stage where it was quite slippery,” explained Fourmaux. “For sure I have to push more in the dirty places.”
Pierre-Louis Loubet’s hopes of catching Greensmith for tenth place had already faced a setback overnight, being handed a 10-second penalty for missing a haybale chicane on Friday’s seventh stage.
On Saturday’s first stage he fell a further 1.1s behind, increasing Greensmith’s advantage to 21s.
“They did the stage last year,” Loubet pointed out, as the former Hyundai 2C had sat the rally out through injury in 2021. “It’s a [of a] bit disadvantage for the first loop but we will try.”
